“Good” and “bad”, “better” and “worse”, are terms which may or may not have a verbal definition, but in any case first come to be understood ostensibly. Let us then begin with an attempt to indicate their meaning—leaving out the question of definition. A thing is “good”, as I wish to use the term, if it is valued for its own sake, and not only for its effects. We take medicines because we hope they will have desirable effects, but a wine connoisseur drinks old wine for its own sake, in spite of possible disagreeable effects. The medicine is not good but useful, the wine is good but not useful.
Utilitarian philosophy maintains that pleasure is the only good and pain is the only evil. This is questionable, but with reference to the way I have indicated the use of the term “good” and thus “bad”, most pleasure is “good” and most pain is “bad”. This leads to the question of ends and means. We condemn the pleasure of the drunkard because of his wife and family and the headache next morning, but given an intoxicant which was cheap and caused no hangover, the pleasure would be all to the good. Morality is so concerned with means that it seems almost immoral to consider anything solely in relation to its intrinsic worth. It follows logical axioms that intrinsic value is logically prior to the value as means. Let me stress the ethical importance of the question of ends and means. The difference between a civilised man and a savage, between an adult and a child, between a man and an animal, consists largely in a difference as to the weight attached to ends and means in conduct. A civilised man insures his life, a savage does not; an adult brushes her teeth to prevent decay, a child does not, except under external authority; men labour in the fields to provide food for the winter, animals do not. Forethought, which involves doing unpleasant things now for the sake of pleasant things in the future, is on of the most essential marks of mental development. Since forethought is difficult and requires control of impulse, moralists stress its necessity, and lay more emphasis on the virtue of present sacrifice than on the pleasantness of the subsequent reward. You must do right because it is right, and not because it is the way to go to heaven. You must save because all sensible people do, and not because you will ultimately secure an income that will enable you to enjoy life. The list goes on.
However, it is quite easy to extend this attitude of mind too far. It is pathetic to see an elderly rich business man who, from work and worry in youth, has become dyspeptic so that he can eat only dry toast and drink only water while his careless guests feast; the joys of wealth, which he had anticipated throughout long laborious years, elude him, and his only remaining pleasure is the use of financial power to compel his children to submit in their turn to a similarly futile drudgery. Thus, preoccupation with means rather than ends in the extreme form kills all joy of life, all artistic enjoyment and creativeness, and all spontaneous affection. Without some consciousness of ends, life becomes drab and dreary; in the end the need for excitement finds a worse outlet than it would otherwise have done, in war or cruelty or intrigue or some other destructive activity.
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